Press Releases

Schiff Statement on Twitter Briefing to House Intelligence Committee

Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, released the following statement:

“Today, the Committee had an important meeting with Twitter to discuss Russia's use of their platform in support of the Kremlin's malign disinformation campaign targeting the 2016 presidential election. Twitter expressed their desire to work cooperatively with the Committee's investigation, and committed to undertaking and sharing with the Committee additional analyses beyond their initial findings.

“At this early stage in their internal review, Twitter has identified and taken remedial steps against accounts linked to Russian government actors. Much of the information that Twitter used to identify Russian-linked accounts, however, was derived from Facebook's own analysis, and it is clear that Twitter has significant forensic work to do to understand the depth and breadth of Russian activity during the campaign. This additional analysis will require a far more robust investigation into how Russian actors used their platform as a part of their active measures campaign and whether any of the targeting on Twitter suggests the possibility of assistance or collusion with any U.S. persons.

“We look forward to hearing more from Twitter as we continue to investigate how Russia sought to push disinformation and fake news through the use of bots and false personas to influence the outcome of the election. Twitter's platform is only one element of the story, though, and it will be necessary for the Committee and the public to hear from all of the relevant groups and tech companies that were used by the Kremlin to attack the United States. That is why the Committee's October open hearing with these companies will be so critical.”